Tsotsi (2005)

Tsotsi was adapted from the novel of the same name by well-known South African playwright, Athol Fugard. This English subtitled movie won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (South Africa).

Tsotsi is an excellent movie about sin and redemption.

Tsotsi wanders through the streets with his friends looking for trouble and finding it wherever they go. At the beginning of the movie, we see Tsotsi and his gang (the word Tsotsi means “thug” in the urban slang of Johannesburg, South Africa) shooting dice, one member, although a decent crapshooter, cannot count; therefore he seldom wins at the game. Maybe this is a subtle hint about the way the boys live, life is a crapshoot and you have to be smart enough to know how to make every minute count properly and effectively; or you lose at the biggest game of all. The boys go from shooting dice to murder when they rob and kill a man and after watching him make a purchase in the local marketplace. Later one of the boys, Boston, (Mothusi Mangano) challenges Tsotsi by telling him they went too far. He asks if he [Tsotsi] has every loved anyone or anything. Tsotsi retaliates by savagely beating his friend, and angrily walking out. As he walks, he seems to be looking for a reason to harm anyone who gets in his way, when that does not happen, he simply highjacks a woman’s car, then coldly shoots her, as she tries to stop him.

Tsotsi unknowingly drives away with an infant in the backseat of the car. When the baby starts to make noise, he stops the car and looks at the infant . Not quite sure what to do, he starts to walk away, leaving the car door open and the child crying. However, something will not let him do that, he returns to the car, puts the infant in a large shopping bag and returns to his shanty with the child. Tsotsi does not realize it, but he has made a life changing decision. He becomes the infant’s caretaker. This is a different side of Tsotsi. We are shown bits and pieces of his life as a child through short, quickly moving flashbacks. You find that his mother was dying when he ran away from his brutal father at an early age. You may later find yourself wondering if the father really was brutal and the reasons for his actions.

Young actor Presley Chweneyagae is new to film, Tostsi is his first big screen effort, and he rises to the challenge.

Viewers should be warned that this movie is violent and the dialogue is peppered heavily with profanity. The “F” word is used so many times it may beat the record of Al Pacino’s Scarface character.

Rated R